This dissertation is an empirical work dealing with child health issues in developing . countries and specifically in Pakistan where the emphasis is put on the analysis of the relationship between socioeconomic determinants and health impacts. The first chapter includes a general discussion of child health and its importance for economic development in Pakistan and other developing countries. Undoubtedly, the health of children and young people are among the most important health issues. In this regard, the under-five mortality rate is widely used as credible measure of child health in this study. Children tend to be most vulnerable in their first year of life when their health is influenced not only by their own physical condition but also by the social and environmental conditions of the household (Elder & Shanahan, 2006; Lerner et al., 2011). This strong relationship between child mortality and socioeconomic conditions has ensured its continued and widespread use in monitoring social inequalities in health. This is combined· with the fact that preventing early deaths is an effective approach to increasing life expectancy and the monitoring of child mortality rates remains a key component of effective public health action. This dissertation has three objectives. The first objective is to examine the socioeconomic determinants of child health as well as the environmental degradation and child malnutrition variables on child health across the panel countries. The second objective is to develop regression based decomposition analysis to measure the child health inequalities among different socioeconomic groups in Pakistan. The third objective of the study is to investigate the impact of women empowerment and relative bargaining power on child health in Pakistan. In order to reach the first objective, this study used panel data methods to estimate the determinants of child mortality employing World Bank data for 96 low and middle income countries. This study empirically examined the socioeconomic and environmental determinants of child mortality outcomes by applying various panel data estimation methods i.e, Pooled, Fixed Effect, R~dom Effect, 2SLS, 2SLS FE and system GMM. Moreover, the analysis also examined if fertility is causal to child mortality and the effect of fertility on child mortality using 2SLS. The analysis revealed that the System GMM estimate is the best model which suggests a positive and significant coefficient of lagged child mortality, implying that child mortality is persistent over time. The results provide strong evidence that women's education, women's labour participation, immunization coverage and real GDP per capita are important detelminants of child mortality for developing countries. Other important findings are that immunization coverage and environmental degradation have significant effects on child mor,tality. Overall the results suggest that more attention should be given to the economic costs of poor health associated with environmental damage such as air pollution. Immunization coverage and improved sanitation seyms to be much more effective in reducing child mortality in developing countries. Therefore, it is argued that investments in these specific activities will yield significant social benefits within the sample of countries examined. . The second objective is achieved through the application of a decomposition approach to explain socioeconomic inequalities in child health in Pakistan. Inequalities in child health are measured using the concentration index, which is then decomposed into its contributions to socioeconomic inequality in the observed determinants of child health. Data for the analysis came from the 1998/99, 2001102, 2005/06 and 2007/08 Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement Survey (PSLM). The analysis reveals that child under five mOliality inequalities are concentrated among socio-economic groups that are poor in Pakistan in all four years of the survey. Furthermore, the results from decomposition analysis shows that household income, urban residency, mother's education, no breastfeeding and having no sanitation facility each made a sizeable contribution to child health inequality. This study recommends that scaling up social and economic policies that are in alignment with child health policies could bridge the current avoidable and unjust gap between the child health of advantaged and disadvantaged groups in Pakistan. .'~ The third objective of this study is to evaluate the hypothesis that women empowerment and relative bargaining power is related to lower child mortality. This hypothesis is again tested using PSLM data from Pakistan. The study attempts to focus light on the status of women and the effect on early childhood mortality controlling for the effect of other associated determinants. To allow for unobservable heterogeneity across birth cohorts and geographical districts, this study constructs a pseudo panel for a sample of children under the age of five from three repeated cross sections observed in 2001/02, 2005/06, and 2007/08. It is evident by the results that women empowerment and women bargaining power seemed to have the strongest effect on child m011ality in Pakistan. This study concludes that empowerment of women bestows further benefit to society indicating that there is the need for increasing the incentives for good care of children. The health status of children clearly increases with lower mortality, and this probability is higher when women are more empowered to make decisions within the household, suggesting the need for interventions that increase women's financial and physical autonomy.

Darbo tikslas. Ištirti Kauno Vaiko raidos klinikos „Lopšelis“ stacionaro teikiamų paslaugų kokybę nepilnamečių pacientų atstovų požiūriu. Uždaviniai. Įvertinti stacionaro teikiamų paslaugų apimtį nepilnamečių pacientų atstovų poži��riu, ištirti nepilnamečių pacientų atstovų nuomonę apie paslaugų prieinamumą, įvertinti pacientų atstovų pasitenkinimą suteiktomis paslaugomis. Tyrimo metodika. Anoniminė anketinė apklausa vyko 2007 m. sausio – gruodžio mėnesiais. Buvo išdalinta 131 anketa. Gautos 115 anketų (atsako dažnis 87,8 proc.). Ryšiai tarp požymių buvo vertinami chi kvadrato kriterijumi bei laisvės laipsnių skaičiumi. Statistinių hipotezių reikšmingumui įvertinti pasirinktas statistinio reikšmingumo lygmuo p. Rezultatai. Beveik trys ketvirtadaliai tyrime dalyvavusių pacientų atstovų (72,9 proc.) nurodė, jog juos pilnai patenkino paslaugų apimtis. Didžiąją dalį respondentų (80,5 proc.) pilnai tenkino procedūrų trukmė. Statistiškai reikšmingai didesnė dalis pasitikinčių specialistų kompetencija respondentų (77,9 proc.) lyginant su mažiau pasitikinčiais (33,3 proc.) teigia, jog juos pilnai patenkino įstaigoje teikiamų paslaugų įvairovė (p < 0,01). Beveik pusė (44,6 proc.) apklaustųjų teigė, jog iš karto buvo priimti į gydymo įstaigą. Beveik visi dalyvavę tyrime vaikus lydintys asmenys (96,5 proc.) teigė, jog atvykus į skyrių, jie buvo informuoti apie skyriaus darbo tvarką. Didžioji dalis dalyvavusių tyrime (89,1 proc.) nurodė, jog norėtų sugrįžti į šią gydymo įstaigą, jei to... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Aim of the study. To investigate the quality of in-patient service from the perspective of minor patients’ representatives at Kaunas child development clinic “Lopšelis”. Objectives. To evaluate in-patient service extent from the perspective of minor patients’ representatives, to examine the opinion of minor patients’ representatives about accessibility of service, to evaluate satisfaction of minor patients’ representatives with the provided service. Methods. Anonymous survey of 115 patients’ representatives (response rate – 87.8%) was carried out in 2007. SPSS statistical analysis program was used to process the data. Statistic data reliability was tested by chi square test of independence, degrees of freedom quantity and statistical significance (p). Results. Almost three thirds of surveyed patients‘ representatives (72.9%) indicated, that they were satisfied with the extent of service. The majority of respondents (80.5%) were satisfied with the duration of procedure. Statistically significant bigger part of respondents trusted in competence of specialists (77.9%) in comparison with the less trusted in competence of specialist (33.3 proc.) maintained, that they were satisfied with the diversity of provided service (p<0.01). Nearly half of the respondents (44.6%) revealed, that they were immediately admitted to the institution. Almost all survived entourage (96.5%) stated, that on the arrival at department, they were informed about procedure in the department. The majority... [to full text]

This dissertation" Specialized education in the field of practitioners for children and adolescents in the Czech Republic " focuses on the development of specialized postgraduate medical uducation in the context of social change in the Czech Republic after 1989 and their impact on staffing in the field of health care practitioners for children and adolescents . The first part describes the theoretical and factual basis , which is closely related to the issues . These concepts explained the functioning and development of the health system, providing primary care by practitioners for children and adolescents, impact of transformation of the labor market and human resources in health care and human rights in health care. To analyze the empirical part of the thesis i used the method of historical institutional analysis. I explained formal and informal relationships in time cohorts between major actors and their influence in shaping the institutional framework of specialized education of physicians over time, especially in the legislative documents. Attention is paid especially to organization and financing of specialist medical education in the field of practitioner for children and adolescens, aging of population present practitioners, and their generational replacement in the context of demographic...